Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Day 11

Our day started early. We spent the night in Jerusalem and had to be to Gethsemane by 8:00 am.

The Garden of Gethsemane once covered a large portion of the Mount of Olives. They called their orchards "gardens". So it becomes obvious how the Mount of Olives got its name. No one knows the exact location in the garden that Christ went to pray.

We went to this part of the garden first. We had the place to ourselves. There our lecturer, Micheal Wilcox shared a message with us and we had some quiet time to find a private corner to meditate or pray. I took the opportunity to pray and was blessed to feel the Holy Spirit strongly.
Then we crossed the street to the more traditional sight. There are some old olive trees there, but not old enough to date back to the time of Christ. It didn't have the same serenity as the first part that we visited. There were people selling things and more people. It's harder to have a spiritual experience in that atmosphere. But it was still nice.



This is part of Antonia Fortress. It is now in the basement of a convent. It was discovered when the convent was built. It is here that Pontius Pilate tried Christ. It's very hard to see in this picture, but the Roman soldiers had etched some of there games on the floor. This is likely the spot of the trial.

This was once a main road of Jerusalem during Christ's time. It is almost certain that he would have used this road. The grooves in the road are to help water drain. It runs right next to what used to be the Antonia Fortress.

This is were the Pool of Bethesda used to be. It is where Christ healed the man who couldn't get into himself into the pool. There is a chapel built here to honor the Virgin Mary and is the traditional site of her birth.

This is the traditional site of the Last Supper. The room (a small chapel) itself dates to the Crusades. The exact location of the Last Supper is unknown but possibly in this vicinity. This chapel was later turned into a mosque. Now it belongs to everyone.

This church (called Gallicantu) is built on the site of Caiaphas's palace. This is where Peter denied Christ three times.

These steps are next to Gallicantu. They once led from the lower city of Jerusalem to the upper city. They date back to the time of Christ and likely would have been used by him.
This area was discovered in 1867 by a man who found a cistern. Several church presidents have expressed the opinion that this is Christ's Tomb.


Believed to be Golgotha. It was a two minute walk from the Garden Tomb.

The Garden Tomb. It was a very crowded day here. You can see how long the line was. I wished I would have been able to be there alone. While everyone was respectful and reverent, it was hard to have a spiritual with so many people around in tourist mode.

The inside of the tomb.

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